TEMPUS CHAPTER FIFTY THREE
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
George Bernard Shaw
Everyone arrived at the plane safely except for Uriel and Raguel who stayed with the head of NASA. They would fly the Ascalon down. The Band chose to fly commercial after seeing the assassination attempt. Goodbyes were said, and the band headed back home. The vehicles were loaded. Both ships, the Probability and the Retribution were parked on the ramp. The ramp was raised up. There was an unconscious man strapped to a harness on the ramp floor.
“Sargent Major, I need a man in bio-chem gear to pull all of his molars once we are airborne. He has a gas tooth that needs removing.”
“Cristian the pilot needs to know where we are going?”
“Kamloops. We can fuel up at CFB Winnipeg if we need to? Undisclosed flight plan.”
Two men were suited up and went to pull the teeth, The ramp was lowered three feet as a precaution. He had everyone put on masks just in case. All his molars were pulled while he screamed.
“Cristian this is brutal, why are you doing this?” asked Albert.
“He has a poison gas-filled tooth that may kill one of you, we are disarming him.”
“Oh, I am sorry Cristian, I won’t bother you again.”
“You may want to turn around, Albert, this may get brutal.”
The assassin was writhing in pain, “Where is my hand, you can’t do this.”
“Actually I can, we are at war, and you are an Alien Collaborator.”
“I don’t work for the Aliens.”
“Who do you work for?”
“I am not telling you anything.”
“No problem, could I see your boarding pass?”
“What?”
“No pass you will have to leave the aircraft, the exit is at the rear of the plane.”
“Cristian grabbed the man and threw him off the plane.”
“Dammit, I lost my grip,” said Cristian. “Can someone haul him back inside?”
“Huh, good thing we hooked him to that cargo strap First Leader.”
“It is soldier. Better haul him in, must be cold out there.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” said the assassin.
“Nope, just pissed off, when I get crazy you will lose limbs. Who do you work for?”
“I was hired by a Consortium that represents the Pharmaceutical companies, they are a little unhappy about you curing diseases that they would rather not see cured.”
“Give me a name.”
“I have no names.”
“Send him out again.”
“Wait, I will give you the name.”
“Lorelei, I am going to drop him off at ADX. Did you want to come along?”
“Sweetie, if it’s okay, I was going to Show Tiffany around home.”
“ I will see you at home or catch you on the way.”
“Sargent Major, I will need two men.”
“M2 and Lucy, you are with me.”
“Watcher, could you make sure that the Probability doesn’t fall out, we exit the Plane.”
“No problem, Probability hovering.”
“Lower the ramp.”
In mid-flight, the Retribution exited the aircraft and headed for Colorado to drop off a prisoner and interrogate three more.
“Watcher call the acting Warden James let him know we are on the way. He landed the Retribution in the exercise yard.
“Good to see you Cristian your Lizards are safe, been feeding them raw fish heads. They seem to like them.”
“And the warden?”
“He is safe too?”
“Good Job, we will be taking the Lizards off your hands. We brought you a new prisoner.”
“Another Lizard?”
“Nope, an assassin.”
“Any special instructions.”
“No, he shouldn’t be treated any different from any inmate here.”
“I understand Cristian.”
“Cristian the inmates loved your guitar playing, you have a lot of fans here.”
“Tell them thanks and give them extra smokes from me.”
“Will do.”
“E1 you coming down?”
“They call me Lucy now, Robert.”
“Lucy cool, I like that, Everybody loves Lucy.”
“Soldiers, I think we will all go with him.”
The cheers were loud as Cristian walked through the cell block with the new prisoner.
“Cristian stopped by the cell of a very large bald, tattooed inmate.”
“What’s your name, son?”
“They call me Tiny.”
“Of course they do.”
“You sure stretched the strings on that geet tar.”
“Tiny, this man here tried to assassinate me this morning. I would hate to see him dead.”
“How alive should he be First Leader?”
“Breathing would be good.”
“Where is his hand?”
“I cut it off. It had a ring with poison on it.”
“You are way too fucking cool First Leader.”
“Is there anything thing I can do for you, Tiny?”
“Ya First Leader I got a wife and Kids near Tuscon could you check up on her and tell her I love her.”
“Write down the address.”
“You are the fucking man, if you need someone to fight come and look me up.”
“Will do, Tiny, why are you here?”
“I have a bad temper and I killed a few men, it was in the same fight. I swear I didn’t mean to. I have been trying to resolve my anger issues in counselling.”
“ I may need some Lizard killers before we are through. Take care Tiny.”
“You too Sir.”
“I would not want to mess with that man even if I was armed First Leader.”
“Me either, soldier,” said Cristian.
“First Leader, I have a cell here for him. I will process him after we load the Lizards up”
“Sounds good, Warden James.”
The Lizards were escorted back to the Retribution, and they took off.
“Where are we going to sir.”
“Off-world.”